FINIS.

Transcriber's Note The Title Page is from the original 1720 printing, by [Thomas D'Urfey] (1653-1723), found at:
http://www . archive.org/details/songscompleatple06durfuoft. (View [Title Page of Vol. I])
There are around 200 songs in this book. To avoid confusion, the page numbers have been used to identify the songs, and the various accompanying files: Sibelius Scorch (two files each: .htm and .sib) Midi file (.mid) PDF file (.pdf) The Alphabetical Table of Songs gave the page numbers for the lyrics. Page numbers for the music scores have been added, for clarification, as often the two are different. Also some songs use the music of other songs in the book, and these page numbers have been given. Some songs do not have music, and some have tunes which are not in this book. There are numerous apparent errors in the original printed music: missing notes, incorrect note and rest lengths, incorrect accidentals (naturals were not used; a sharp corrected a flat, and a flat corrected a sharp), which have been retained in the images, but have been corrected in the Scorch (Sibelius) web pages, and in the pdf and midi files. The excess accidentals have mostly been retained. The original Time Signatures have been retained in the Scorch web pages and in the pdf files. A couple of tunes are in Common Time (C). A lot are in "Cut-Common" Time (C with a vertical line cutting it: roughly twice as fast as Common Time); and a few have an inverted "Cut-Common" signature: twice as fast as "Cut-Common time. Sibelius has a Prolation symbol for this purpose. Some Time signatures are simply 2, or 3. The Signature 3 usually indicates a faster time than "Cut-Common", especially in the same song. [Note (from Wikipedia): Prolation is a term used in the theory of medieval music to describe its rhythmic structure on a small scale. The term is derived from the Latin prolatio, first used by Philippe de Vitry in describing Ars Nova, a musical style that came about in 14th-century France. Prolation, together with tempus, corresponds roughly to the concept of time signature in modern music. Prolation describes whether a semibreve (whole note) is equal in length to two minims (half notes) (minor prolation or imperfect prolation) or three minims (major prolation or perfect prolation). Early medieval music was often structured in subdivisions of three, while the note values in modern music are unambiguously subdivided into two parts, meaning that only minor prolation has survived in our time signature system. We now indicate subdivisions of three by modifying note values with dots or triplets. The history of written medieval music shows a gradual shift from major to minor prolation being common.] Some readers would still remember the old style of crotchet (quarter note) rest, which was used in this book. Here is an example in compound duple time (2 dotted crotchets or 6 quavers (eighth notes) to the bar). The first image is from the original 1720 book, showing old-style crotchet (quarter note) rests. Note that the minim (half note) rest is used as a half-bar rest. The second image is as we would see it printed nearly 300 years later, using the modern crotchet rest, and a dotted crotchet rest as the half-bar rest. The bass, or F clef on page 282 is a little different from our modern F clef, but still recognisable as an F clef. There are many instances of anacruses where the last bar has not been shortened by the length of the anacrusis bar. These have not been corrected, as it would seem to have been a convention at the time. The lyrics have been added to most of the songs in the .sib and .pdf versions, where the words could reasonably fit the music. This is a 'best guess' interpretation. There may be other interpretations; some interpretation was apparently left to the singer's discretion. The playable Sibelius Scorch version has been provided as a guide only; it has been furnished with hidden instructions (speeds, repeats, etc.) to allow a comfortable rendition, and is not necessarily historically accurate. (The transcriber is not a musicologist). Speeds may be slowed down or speeded up, using the pointer in the Scorch interface. The Scorch file may be started by clicking the Start button (arrow) or by clicking the first note, or any other note to start in a different place. Stop the Scorch file with the [Esc] button, or by clicking the Stop (black square) button. The midi files should start playing automatically after the link is clicked. Repeated passsages are indicated in the original by the 'signe' (%). The repeat was from the 'signe' to the next double barline. In the absense of a convenient double barline, a second (end) 'signe' was included. The book is not always gramatically correct, e.g.: "There was three Travellers". Odd spellings, and odd grammatical constructions, if they make sense, have been preserved. There is some dialect, which has also been preserved. (e.g.: "Wo'as me poor Lass! what mun I do?") Apostrophes of ownership are conspicuous by their absence. Spelling is sometimes quaint...'spight' for 'spite', 'dye' for 'die', 'chuse' for choose', 'seaze' for 'seize', 'quere' for 'queer', etc. Where a spelling makes sense, and is merely discretional and not obviously incorrect, it has been retained. 'Their' instead of 'there' has appeared twice (page 4 and page 201), retained, and 'Pharoah' (page 225), retained: it is a drinking song. pp. 245-246: 'Monsieur Grabeau' (twice) on page 245 becomes Monsieur Grabeu (four times) on page 246. [Note (from Wikipedia): Louis Grabu, Grabut, Grabue, or Grebus (fl. 1665-1690, died after 1693) was a Catalan-born, French-trained composer and violinist who was mainly active in England. While he was probably born in Catalonia - he was later referred to as 'Lodovicus Grabeu of Shalon in Catalunnia' - details of his early life are lacking. Sometime in his youth he moved to Paris, where he was most likely trained by Lully. At the time of the Restoration he went to England, where French music, especially opera, was much in vogue. Charles II of England appointed him as a composer for his own private music in 1665, and with the death of Nicholas Lanier in 1666 he became the second person to hold the title Master of the King's Musick. He adapted Robert Cambert's opera Ariadne for a London performance in 1674, and wrote music for John Dryden's Albion and Albanius in 1685. In 1693 he left England, the only land where he had achieved any kind of fame, and completely disappeared from historical record.] Consonants were not necessarily doubled where we would now expect. Standardised modern spelling is a fairly recent (mid 19th century) imposition, probably coinciding with the various Public Education Acts. Some spellings may be left over from Middle English, e.g. 'sily' from 'sely', dialect 'seely', from OE 'sælig' (luck, happiness); thus 'sily' (p. 58) may have meant 'lucky' or 'happy' instead of the modern 'silly'. Or 'sily' may be our modern 'silly', with an undoubled middle consonant. Damaged or missing punctuation has been repaired and sundry indents have been adjusted for consistency. Errata (Corrections are also indicated, in the text, by a dotted line underneath the correction. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will appear.) Page 96: 'VVidow' corrected to 'Widow'. (Possibly a printer's error....). ... "Which way to take the Widow Brown," Page 103: 'do' corrected to 'to': "They'll hourly study to deceive," Page 107: 'VVho' corrected to 'Who': "Who dare not their Grief declare," (... or maybe the printer was short of 'W's). Sundry other instances of 'VV' have been corrected to 'W'. Page 131: 'Ny' corrected to 'My': "My Nose takes the burthen...." Page 161: 'MORTAL's' corrected to 'MORTALs': "Mortals learn your Lives to measure," Page 238: 'maguanime' corrected to 'magnanime': "Sat notus pro magnanime" Page 312: missing 'I' added to last line to complete rhyme: "And Priest and Victim I." Page 316: 'I'ye' corrected to "I've": "I've lost a Harry Groat," [Note: Harry was King Henry; a groat was an old English silver coin, first coined by Henry III in 1249, and by Edward III in 1351. Originally worth one penny, it later rose to the value of fourpence. The groat was revived between 1836 and 1856, and withdrawn from circulation in 1887 (from Collins New Age Encyclopedia, 1963)]. [Return to Top]